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MOSCOW: North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin this month, the Kremlin said Thursday, as tensions between Washington and Pyongyang reached fever pitch.

The Kremlin announced the talks just hours after North Korea launched an extraordinary attack on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, demanding he be removed from negotiations over its banned nuclear programme.

Pyongyang also claimed Thursday to have tested a new kind of weapon with a “powerful warhead”.

The Kim-Putin meeting will be the first between the two leaders, as Moscow seeks to play a role in another global flashpoint.

The Kremlin said Putin had invited Kim and that the meeting would take place “in the second half of April” but provided no further details.

Russia, South Korean and Japanese media had reported this week that preparations were underway for a summit in Russia’s Far East.

Russia has relatively warm ties with Pyongyang and provides some food aid, and Putin has long expressed his readiness to meet with the regime leader.